Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis in elderly non-insulin dependent diabetics

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to utilize the renal duplex sonography as a noninvasive tool to identify the prevalence and the aspects of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis [ARAS] in the elderly NIDDM population. In this study, 135 consecutive elderly NIDDM patients [39 F/96 M] aged greater than 55, of whom 76 were hypertensives, were studied as well as 20 elderly nondiabetic cases matched for sex [3 F/17 M] and age, of whom 10 patients were hypertensives, as a control group. The prevalence of ARAS in NIDDM patients was 7.4%, 1 F/9 M, 8 of whom were hypertensives. ARAS was bilateral in four cases. In the non- diabetic group, unilateral ARAS was diagnosed in an elderly hypertensive male [5%]. It was concluded that ARAS is frequent in elderly NIDDM [7.4%], this potentially curable renovascular disease must be evaluated by color duplex sonography, especially in patients with long duration of diabetes, elevated blood pressure, long duration of hypertension, presence of peripheral vascular disease and renal dysfunction